Player of the Game: Rasheed Wallace. In the third and fourth Rasheed really gave us a focus on the offensive end, and he kept coming up money over and over again. Anyone who says he never posts up or can't do it should be forced to watch a tape of this game. Nice decision to throw a long bomb to Ben off the final inbound, too, while the Warriors were trying to deny Rip and Chauncey. Once he started taunting Adonal Foyle (extending the ball behind Foyle's head was a highlight) and getting into it with the GS fans, you knew Sheed was into it ... and when he is, he's the one Piston who comes close to being unstoppable.

Credit to Golden State, which is really putting together a scary team. Great game by Richardson hitting all sorts of impossible shots and Davis played under control all game long. They just give up too much down low, but if they had a center it'd be really tough.

Terrible game by Mo Evans, who had me screaming at the TV. I really need to know what Delfino's done wrong, because Evans just won't play to his role. Arroyo played absolutely awful defense on Fisher in the first half but ran the offense well in guiding the Pistons comeback late.

Sheed has really. I mean really. Really stepped up his post up game this year. And his 3 point shooting is off the charts compared to his previous career numbers. And did I mention he is confindently knocking down those free throws better than ever too. Man is Sheed serious about erasing the stink from how last season ended.

GS played GreenLight. Why? The guy did hit some shots, but Dunleavy made the Pistons eyes light up anytime they saw him defending. This guy is no way worth good money. No way he should be on the court, at least in any tight games. And if you can't be on the floor at the end of the game, should you even be a starter? Well, Tay did get his when he chose, and CB was scoring, Rip was scoring. A whole lot of good O. But some of it was just poor D by GS too.

Tay got all his pretty much inside. Or at least close in. His shot over Dunleavy in the last minute or so was crucial in winning this one. Great to see Tay doing that clutch shooting. These days, we got 4 guys who we can count on to take that clutch shot. Four is a lot.

Ok, now for the bench. Dyess hit a shot. One shot. I am talking about outside shots. Still a pattern of no multiple outside shots made in a game. Happened only one time the last month. But Dyess played enough in this game to give Ben a good long spell in both halves, Sheed a long spell in the first half, and then at least another short rest for Sheed in the 2nd half. Now, in the 2nd half, 4th quarter especially, Sheed was our hero. We could not keep him out of the game too long. But Dyess did what a bench player needs to do, spell the starters.

Evans played the most off the bench. He hit one jumper, a midranger on an assist from Arroyo. Evans was completely open for this shot. So it looks like maybe he can hit a midranger afterall, as long as the shot is completely unchallenged. Still would like to see him be able to rise over people and hit a midranger. He has the ups for it, just has not shown the ability to hit those yet. Thats it for Evans shooting. His 3 shot was off badly the one time he got set. Another time he hurried one and that missed bad too. Evans did get a couple of assists by passing the ball out from the post.

On defense, Evans guarded Baron Davis extensively. Now, Baron Davis never scored at all before Evans started guarding him in the first half, so you got to wonder what is going on there. Evans was in guarding a guard, but providing no ball handlng for our team. GS was going small, playing both Baron Davis and Fischer at the same time, allowing us to go small like this.

In the 2nd half, Evans again guarded Davis, but GS scored every single time down at the end of the 3rd quarter with Evans on Davis. Not doing so well for us. GS started off badly offensively in that quarter, but ended up scoring 29 points in that quarter with a very poor defensive finish by us.

Evans though redeemed himself on this account by being part of the first half of the 4th quarter, where GS did not score at all. We had Arroyo, Evans, Tay, Dyess, and Sheed out there. (I think actually it was half and half between Tay and Rip.) Good defensive stint by our subs there.

Arroyo, as usual, ran our offense very well. In both halves. Indeed, he took a slight deficit and handed off a slight lead to Billups when Billups came back into the game. Coincidentally, as soon as Billups came back in, GS scored two straight times after going scoreless for the quarter up until then. Arroyo hit the only shot he took, a well, er, about 19 feet, right? For the game, the Pistons had very, very low turns. Great job cherishing each posession.

On defense, Fischer scored on Arroyo a couple of times, but then Arroyo simply started forcing the ball out of Fischer's hands by guarding him starting just after the halfcourt line. In the 2nd half, Arroyo used the tactic of getting under Fischer's legs. Altogether, a rather effective defensive effort on Fishcer after a shaky start. Arroyo guarding Davis did not happen much, and I doubt that looks like a good matchup for us their. Indeed, even though on the face of it Evans did not do much, the fact that he spent a lot of energy guarding Davis meant he was at least contributing that energy.

Arroyo had quite a rebounding game. And he was very effective at triggering some fast breaking. Darn good game altogether for Arroyo except for Fischer burning him a couple of times early.

Again, great start for the Pistons. And for this road trip, not a bad start at all as far as keeping the starters well rested. All three of our subs that did play each played significant minutes. And we won. Man, 14-2 GO PISTONS!!!!!

Nice job Lee. I agree with you 100% on Evans and Arroyo. CA played really well tonight. I liked his energy on D. I also liked the fact that he didn't hesitate at all on that shot and looked very confident stroking it.

Evans still needs to find his role on this team. I've been disappointed with his defensive game so far.

micro i feel sorry for JMaxlinwood As the Vice Admiral of the Jmax genius club, I hope they play this guy.linwood start making the crash helmets.

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explosivity i hate tim legler, i can't stand himexplosivity he hates on us all the time on shootaroundggazoo69 Legler. We should start a thread of most hated sportscasters.explosivity why does he hate us so much

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linwood I think the D tends to show up early in the 3rd and back again in the 4th. The starters seem to D up in the second half.linwood I have no statistics to quantify this statement. Just a gut feeling.

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Good call linwood.

webz carparkaba for darko anyone?micro ANYONE FOR DARKO at this pointlinwood I have to agree with that.linwood I feel sorry for the millionaire kid.G-man Aye but he has great hair later...jzchen y delfino is not in d game?iamme he's doing his hairiamme with Darkoiamme sharing geljzchen hahaha...later...micro how does that work? Delfino's hair gets worse, and Darko's gets bettermicro nevermindiamme lolmicro they both have bad hairAbe Froemen so you want delfino with cornrows?iamme Delfin-Rows? :Plinwood You can see that haircut anywhere in Hamtramck that the elderly frequent.

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Needless to say, we have some pretty funny people on this forum and the chat was a good time. Make sure you come hang with us next game to get more hairstyling advice from the experts, and please bring your FREE THE BRAHMA crash helmets...

Not a great defensive effort by any means. Intensity was around 80% except for a few short spurts when they cranked it up to 95%. GS seemed to rotate quicker and more effectively. Their big white guys got some stuf%%%es on Mo and Sheed.

Both teams were in rhythm in the first quarter with Rip curling for jumpers (mostly) and layups (occasionally). On the other side, J-rich and davis were putting on a guard clinic. They hit some tough shots. Detroit got a hand up and contested most shots but they were in rhythm every time.

Arroyo was outclassed by Davis and Fisher. The biggest thing to me was that he gets picked something fierce...like he's unable to slip screens. But like Lee said he ran the offense. I don't know what all this overdribbling talk is about but Billups and arroyo dribble about the same while the play unfolds. Arroyo fires excellent passes and the team's offense runs smooth with him. Right now, we act like an offensive ball club. People might cry for Mike James but what will that buy you? One guy D'ing up while the rest of the team mails it in. James was perfect for Browns system. I think Arroyo fits better with Flip.

Arroyo tried hard though. One time he got juked and stumbled while Davis (? I was up in the nose bleed section.) sunk a 3-ball.

I was expecting Tay to light it up on Dunleavy but GS was cheating off their guy to provide quick help. Detroit went to whoever Dunleavy was guarding with a good amount of success. But there was usually the weakside cheating over.

I was unimpressed with Evans. No handle. He did provided athletic defense against GS's backcourt. And spotty shooting until it was time to stand in line for hotdogs.

At least two times Dunleavy was left so wide open you could hear Gold leader chanting "stay on target...(nobody's guarding me)...Stay on target...(still yet!)...Stay on target" Obi-wan must have told him to use the force cuz they went in.

I thought billups forced a few shots. More than once detroit and GS traded 3's.
Rip got cold late in the 2nd or early in the third but found his stroke again. Sheed was big with his face to the basket low post action. Wow. Solid. GS had no answer for sheed. All they had was J-rich.

Both teams were clutch down the stretch. Detroit got two key stops at different times and sunk their free throws to squeak by.

Looked to me like the Pistons were pacing themselves for a long trip. Little intensity...cranked it up to some intensity. Just enough effort to get a W and move on. In the pregame, it looked like both Darko and Delfino knew they weren't going to play. Darko spent an inordinate amount of time on the GS side. To talk to Cabarkapa. I thought he was trying to get onto the warriors roster. They didn't play darko either. The plane ride will wear the pistons out more than this game.

Watching the game, we settled for a lot of midrange jumpers and long bombs. We get open looks but their team is in place to rebound the miss. For our part, our guys are curling off screens set by our bigs. That means they aren't in any position to crash the boards on the offensive end. Things change when Tay or Sheed get down low and force the other team to rotate but more often than not its a mid range jumper with our big guys no where near the basket.

On the other side, I am wondering if we are over rotating. We get 3 guys collapsing on a penetrator and then its a follow up jam by their unguarded big. Better basketball minds than mine can dissect this more effectively I guess.

Overall it was a fun time being there. The crowd was mellow. I think the most the arena was able to do was Moooooo when a freethrow was being shot.

From a fan standpoint, it was a good game to watch. I was pumping my fist in the air at a local eatery while watching.

This is just my third game and again, Detroit is 3-0 when I get to watch the Pistons play! Wohooo! yeah yeah, they're 11-2 when I don't.

From what I saw, well, the bench has got to give something. We got blown up by the Warriors' bench. Yeah it's hard to complain at 14-2, best start, but you gotta wonder what roles the bench could give our starters already.

Arroyo played ok, Evans had a bunch of blown opportunities, Darko isn't getting time, Dyess isn't like last year (if he wants some time on the block to get himself acclimated to the game, then run a couple of plays down there for the guy!), JMax isn't getting his shot yet, Lindsey still injured, Delfino is secretly asking for a trade somewhere, Davis is just for foul insurance, Amir and Acker are still on the IL. Where will the support for the FAB FIVE come from?

Yeah it was exciting...especially when J=rich hits that 3 at the end and the whole crowd errupts. I was in the 'pistons section' and we had mini ben wallace giving high fives and representin' the fro for the big fella.

I thought the bench played ok. They maintained until the starters rotated back in. I really wanted to see Delfino but GS fielded some athletic guards. The Gs backcourt is scary. Theys got quicks and ups...its tough to stop. So I think Flip wanted more athleticism from Mo than penetration from Delfino.

It didn't matter because they both lit it up no matter who was guarding them. The most effective guy was Hamilton who managed to get in the other guys grille before they got their shot off. Everyone else contested the shot but by then its too late.

It was a war of attrition without wild swings like in Chicago, but it wasn't a knock down drag out fight either...more like a chess match, with dunks...and jumpshots.

In the pregame, it looked like both Darko and Delfino knew they weren't going to play. Darko spent an inordinate amount of time on the GS side. To talk to Cabarkapa. I thought he was trying to get onto the warriors roster. The plane ride will wear the pistons out more than this game.

Does anyone think Ben traveled on his way to the dunk after catching the bomb at the end of the game?

To me, it kinda looked like a shuffle and a two-step by him after he realized he was holding the ball and didn't want to get fouled.

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I didn't think so but I didn't have luxury of instant replay. There were a bunch of uncalled travels by both teams...I think in the 4th. A lot of uncalled carries...by both teams. So it seemed that even if it was a questionable travel...they weren't going to call it cuz that's how they were officiating the whole time.

Ben actually was free the possession before...but he was sprinting from the middle of the court. It seemed a little too risky with (the lack of) that angle. But he tried it again from the side and Sheed seemed more ready for it.

bench played well tonight. guys like evans and arroyo had to defend GS's starting guards who are ridiculously talented...for those who want to complain about the bench defense, GS's guards didn't have much problem scoring on our starters either...

btw, davis didn't score much in the first half true, but he was busy getting 14 assists for the night. i'm amazed at people continually skewing stats (like lee talking about evans on davis) to suit their personal opinion of a player.

evans wasn't awesome but he did his job, mcdyess did his, and arroyo played really well - although against davis he probably could have played a step off rather than up close, which davis was able to drive around.

Needless to say, we have some pretty funny people on this forum and the chat was a good time. Make sure you come hang with us next game to get more hairstyling advice from the experts, and please bring your FREE THE BRAHMA crash helmets...

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flip said on thursday on am 1130 that he plays the bench according to what he needs and that he would not be surprised if he plays J Max on this west coast trip.

I thought Ben travelled too... but on the other hand, I haven't seen anyone take such a hard charge and not get the call. That was the worst call of the year so far.

All in all, that game was spectacular from both sides. GS was hitting very difficult shots that were well defended. I don't agree with those that said that Detroit was pacing themselves for the road trip. To me, it looked like Detroit realized that they were up against a hot shooting team, and that they would lose if they didn't play post season-like defense.

Rip and Arroyo were unusually active on the defensive end. And the main thing was that Sheed felt like the game was important enough to dominate in the post. This was the best game he has had in quite some time. He didn't hit the 3's, but he did what he specializes in... and played great D too.

Anyone notice how the Pistons don't get in foul trouble as much as they did in the past 2 years? Maybe they are just smarter defenders now... or maybe that are starting to get that RESPECT that they deserve. One other thing that I'm noticing is that the Pistons are not getting hung up on bad calls like they used to. Maybe that has something to do with their freedom on offense and knowing that they can just go and erase it.

As far as the bench goes, I'd like to see Darko get some time, but not in a game like that one. The intensity was something that I'm not sure he is capable of. This may have been a game for JMax if we could have built a lead. Delfino probably sat out because we were scoring at will, but couldn't stop GS. CD would have been overkill on offense and a weak link on defense.

Needless to say, we have some pretty funny people on this forum and the chat was a good time. Make sure you come hang with us next game to get more hairstyling advice from the experts, and please bring your FREE THE BRAHMA crash helmets...